Noble Magnificence
View publication
Book Series
Epitome musical
Latin Letters and Poems in Motet Collections by Franco-Flemish Composers (c. 1550- c. 1600)
Demmy Verbeke
- Pages: 315 p.
- Size:150 x 230 mm
- Language(s):English, Latin
- Publication Year:2010
- € 55,00 EXCL. VAT RETAIL PRICE
- ISBN: 978-2-503-53363-6
- Paperback
- Available
Summary
When Renaissance music went to press, the composer or the
publisher frequently added at least one paratext, which acted in
the same way as blurbs do on the dust-jackets of today’s
books. Typically, we find a dedicatory epistle, sometimes
complemented with a preface to the reader and/or verses in praise
of the dedicatee, the composer or the art of music. These texts are
a treasure trove of information about Renaissance music and its
context. They inform us about the lives of the composers, the
publication and function of polyphonic music, and the music theory
of the period. But they also read as a who’s who of the
courts of Europe and the higher echelons of the Church, and reveal
networks between composers, printers, patrons of music and
celebrated authors such as Jean Dorat, Jacques Gohory and Paulus
Melissus Schede.This book offers the first critical edition of more
than 150 such liminary texts, all paratexts in printed collections
of motets composed by the authoritative representatives of the
genre, i.e. polyphonists from the Low Countries.